A wide variety of wireless communications devices and standards have proliferated in recent years. Cellular telephones used for voice communications may be configured to operate in accordance with one of a variety of standards for wireless voice communications, including GSM, iDEN, and other standards. Other wireless devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDA's) and other devices, may be configured to exchange data by wireless communication with public and/or private networks, such as the Internet. In addition, wireless local area network (WLAN) technology enables computers and other devices to be connected to networks through wireless communications, such as via a WLAN operating under the IEEE 802.11b standard.
To support the use, in a building or other defined service area, of one or more of the many wireless device types and standards available now and/or in the future, a typical prior art installation would comprise a plurality of antennas distributed throughout the service area, with each antenna being connected by a cable to a centrally located processing system. FIG. 1 shows a typical prior art wireless communication system. The wireless communication system 100 of FIG. 1 comprises a plurality of radio antennas 102, 104, 106, 108 and 110 connected by cables 112, 114, 116, 118, and 120, respectively, to a centrally located processing system 122.
One shortcoming of the approach illustrated in FIG. 1 and described above is that it can be inefficient to transmit the modulated RF signal by cable to the centrally located processing system for processing. This shortcoming is exacerbated in installations that may be required to support multiple users at the same time in or near the same area. Apart from the increased costs associated with additional antennas and cable, the centrally located processing system may not be able to perform all the required processing with the speed and accuracy that may be required to support real-time communications, such as real-time voice communications by wireless telephone.
A further disadvantage arises where users may wish to use two or more dissimilar wireless devices and/or standards in the same service area. Prior to the introduction of the technology disclosed herein, for example, to support two different types of wireless device and/or standard a first set of antennas would typically be provided to receive and transmit radio-frequency (RF) signals under the first standard and a second set of antennas would likewise typically be provided to receive and transmit RF signals under the second standard. Each antenna of the first set would be connected via a suitable cable to a first centrally located processing system associated with the first standard, and each antenna of the second set would likewise be connected via a suitable cable to a second centrally located processing system associated with the second standard. Data sent under the first standard would be processed at the first centrally located processing system in accordance with the first standard, and data sent under the second standard would be processed at the second centrally located processing system in accordance with the second standard. The capacity of such a system is limited by the processing capacity of the centrally located processing systems and the bandwidth (information carrying capacity) of the cables connected the respective antennas to the corresponding centrally located processing system(s). In addition, due in large part to the quantity of cable that must be purchased and installed, such an approach may not be cost effective. In addition, it may be difficult to design and install such a system, as many aspects of performance are highly frequency dependent and each device type and/or standard may operate at its own frequency.
Therefore, there is a need for a better way to provide wireless communication services for a defined service area, such as a building. In addition, it would be advantageous to provide a way to provide for the use of dissimilar wireless devices and/or standards in such a service area that does not suffer from the capacity constraints and other disadvantages described above.